Erik Brunetti, proprietor of the FUCT clothing and as early a developer/proponent of what is now termed "Street Art" as exists, is shopping his polaroid portrait of the now-legendary stenciler shot in the early 1990s at Slam City Skates, the then-UK distributor for Bruneti's influential streetwear label.

Nicky will discuss his passion for polaroid photography and the history of the iconoclastic band, and take part in a book signing following the Q&A.The event, brought to you by Faber & Faber in association with the Guardian, will be hosted at Rough Trade East, Brick Lane on Wednesday 16 November.

Wordmap

Word visualization

Comments

"What makes the Polaroid picture special—and suddenly so resonant—is the way its formal qualities dovetail with the mechanics of memory.... For much of its history, photography marked the moments sporadically (each roll of film contained a limited number of images) or abstractly (in black and white); we were required to exercise our mnemonic muscles by supplying the color or recalling the context. But digital photography rewrote the rules, parceling out the past in a flood of images that are as detailed and consecutive as our devices allow.... The Polaroid serves as a palpable reminder of the pleasures of good old-fashioned remembering. For one thing, it materializes in real time, making it the only form of photography that transcends mere documentation to become part of the moment it's meant to preserve; we blow out the candles, look at the Polaroid, and archive both experiences as one.... Polaroids inadvertently warp, and thus estheticize, every moment they capture... Polaroids look like memories—imperfect and incomplete, but somehow realer for it."—Andrew Romano, "Instant Karma," Newsweek, July 27, 2009

“The demise of Polaroid’s instant film cameras has been coming for years. Digital technology did it in. The decision this year by the company that Edwin Land founded to stop manufacturing the film has left devotees who grew up with Polaroid’s palm-size white-bordered prints bereft. They have signed up in the thousands as members of SavePolaroid.com. Digital cameras that print instant pictures have materialized to fill the void, providing a practical substitute. But as in most affairs of the heart, logic is beside the point.�?— Michael Kimmelman, ‘The Polaroid: Imperfect, Yet Magical’, The New York Times (27 December 2008).